31 Days of Monsters: Day Eight — Mothman

Mothman began appearing in Point Pleasant, West Virginia in the mid 1960s. Described as a large moth or owl-like human, it haunted an explosives storage area on the outskirts of town.
The strange, menacing figure became a harbinger of doom for townspeople, always seeming to appear before tragedy. His appearances culminated in 1967 when he was seen shortly before the collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River, a tragic event that killed 46 people. He hasn't been seen since.
Some people believe Mothman is tied to UFO sightings in the area at the time, and he may be an alien. Others believe he may be an extra-dimensional animal who somehow slipped sideways through a crack in the Universe, and that he may be as benign to his world as a cow or rabbit seems to us.
Skeptics say that the entire Mothman phenomena was just mass-hysteria, and that what people really saw was a sand-hill crane.

Bikini Atol

This one just came naturally. I didn't have to do a lot of sketching for it and when I did the underdrawing, that too came as a snap. Really happy about how this one came out. A lot of time, watercolors on Bristol can have some strange accidents on the surface. This time, just enough accident, just enough control.

Bongo Island

Here's yet another illustration for the Trick 'r Tiki show. The inspiration for this is the early American space program, including the cold war, Cape Canaveral and the tiki/polynesian chic that was popular in that area of the country at the time. The bongos are a nod to physicist Richard Feynman, one of the most brilliant and entertaining figures of the 20th century. If you ever get a chance to hear his lecture "Los Alamos From Below," do so. It's a funny and fascinating insight into the Manhattan Project.